Cyclist's Killing Was Not Racial, Police Believe

Orlando police investigators said Monday they are not treating as racially motivated the shooting death of a black man in which a young witness says the white gunman made racial slurs.

But Nap Ford, the city council member who represents the west Orlando district in which Jimmy Lee Edwards lived and died, urged police to investigate the possibility that the killing was connected with or inspired by a violent right-wing group.

Police Lt. Don Glass said the shooting of Edwards, 28, during a bicycle ride late Friday apparently resulted from the kind of harassment by motorists that happens a lot, regardless of race.

He said Edwards, 715 Easy Ave., probably could have avoided a confrontation by ignoring the gunman's first comments, which were not racial. Instead, Edwards responded by ''smarting back,'' Glass said.

The gunman then made the racial remarks, jumped out of the truck in which he had been riding and shot Edwards once in the heart, a 12-year-old girl who was riding with Edwards has told investigators.

It was not a situation in which ''a truckful of rednecks'' had gone looking for a black person to shoot, emphasized Capt. George MacNamara, who heads the criminal investigation division of the Orlando Police Department.

Orlando has been ''very fortunate that we have not had a racial problem per se,'' Glass said. ''What we don't want the city to feel is that we have an uncontrollable situation, because we don't.''

The girl is the only known witness to the shooting, which occurred about 11:30 p.m. near Church Street and Dollins Avenue in a mostly commercial area. ''We think we're getting the straight story from her,'' MacNamara said. Police have heard ''only one side of the story,'' which is bound to be biased, he added.

Saying he was protecting the integrity of the investigation, Glass would not detail the conversation between Edwards and the assailant as related by the girl.

Investigators are concentrating on trying to find the truck, which the girl described as a brown four-wheel drive with stripes on the side, dark- tinted glass and sliding rear windows.

They said the truck may have come from Orlando Stadium or Tinker Field, about two blocks away. There were no scheduled activities at either field but there might have been an informal gathering.

''We do have leads we are following,'' Glass said. ''Nothing that is real positive. It's not as if we're waiting for something to happen.''

He asked anyone with information to call police.

Council member Ford said that because of ''the climate in the country today,'' the possibility must be considered that the killing was related to a racist group known as the Order, the Brotherhood and other names.

Members are suspected of involvement in the murder of a Denver radio talk-show host, bank robberies in the Northwest, weapons offenses and other crimes. In recent weeks, members have been arrested in north Georgia and Winston-Salem, N.C.

Ford said he was ''not imputing motives'' in Edwards' killing ''because I certainly don't know what happened.''

But he added: ''I can't see how you can say it doesn't involve race. You have to consider the possibility if not of organized activity, a spinoff of that.''

''There should be thorough checks to see if there are any kinds of those connections,'' Ford said. ''We certainly don't need it in Orlando.''